The Used
The Used is an American rock band from Orem, Utah. The band was founded in 2001 and signed to Reprise Records the same year. They rose to fame in June 2002 after releasing their self-titled debut album. They followed up with their second album, In Love and Death, in September 2004 and their third album, Lies for the Liars, in May 2007. An EP, Shallow Believer, was released in February 2008 that featured most of the band's B-sides to date. They spent the entire year of 2008 working on their fourth studio album, which was released on August 31, 2009, called Artwork.The Used official site The band has achieved both Gold and Platinum statuses in more than six countries worldwide.The First Annual ROCKSTAR Energy Drink GET A LIFE TOUR Presented by Samsung Mobile Announces Artist Lineup and Tour History Formation and Demos from the Basement (2001) The Used was founded in January 2001 with the recruitment of members that were a part of several other bands throughout the 1990s."Now That The Used Are No Longer Using, Life Is 'Unreal'" MTV. July 18, 2002. Retrieved February 7, 2009. Founding members Branden Steineckert, Quinn Allman and Jeph Howard engaged into the plan of starting the band and had music already prepared, but did not have lyrics and required a vocalist. Auditions for singers were held at Jeph Howard's residence."The Used Offer Old 'Memories' In New CD/DVD Package" MTV. June 13, 2003. Retrieved February 7, 2009. Upon observations, the band were not satisfied with any of the results the vocalists displayed and described the auditions as "terrible". Although, when Allman confronted Bert McCracken, he asked if he was interested in joining the band. Upon McCracken's meeting of the other band members, he was impressed with the material they created. After being given music that the band had written, McCracken wrote the lyrics to what would become "Maybe Memories" and returned the next day to record a demo version of the song. McCracken was then officially confirmed as being the band's vocalist. Throughout all of this, the band members suffered from poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse. They even panhandled for change in order to buy food to stay alive."((( The Used > Biography )))" allmusic. Retrieved February 7, 2009. The members decided on their band name as being "Used" when their friends claimed they felt "used" when contact was lost between them and band members due to them becoming more involved in the band."Now That The Used Are No Longer Using, Life Is 'Unreal'" MTV. Retrieved February 7, 2009."I’m Out of My Head!" Blender. Retrieved February 7, 2009. The Used continued to write songs together and recorded a demo album in drummer, Branden Steineckert's bedroom titled Demos from the Basement. Steineckert sent their songs to producer John Feldmann from the ska group, Goldfinger. After he heard the song "A Box Full of Sharp Objects", he gained an interest into having the band signed to a label. Feldmann flew the band to Los Angeles taking them out of their home state for the first time in their lives and played the songs for various record executives to try to get them signed, however, the first few weren't interested and it left John discouraged. Eventually, many copies of the demo were received by many record label representatives who found an interest into signing them. With many labels at The Used's choice, they decided to sign to Reprise Records in late 2001. Self-titled album and Maybe Memories (2002-2003) In 2002, it was discovered that a Boston band had already trademarked the name "Used," so they decided to add "The" to their name, thus deciding "The Used". Their self-titled debut album was released on June 25, 2002, and was produced by John Feldmann. The album received mixed reviews and featured four singles: "A Box Full of Sharp Objects", "The Taste of Ink", "Buried Myself Alive", and "Blue and Yellow", with the latter three entering the charts. The album has been certified gold.RIAA - Gold & Platinum - May 30, 2008 The Used would go on to play Warped Tour, Ozzfest, and Projekt Revolution, as well as Box Car Racer's first and only tour. During these tours, they had a 5th member, a touring guitarist by the name of Greg Bester. He was forced to return to his home country when he couldn't get a working Visa. The band received much recognition when Bert McCracken dated Kelly Osbourne."The Used" Blender. Retrieved February 11, 2009. These events brought the band much fanfare and popularity. In July 2003, The Used released a compilation CD/DVD combo package titled Maybe Memories. The CD features live, rare, previously unreleased tracks, and demo material while the DVD features the history of the band, member bios, and part of a live concert. Upon its high sales, Maybe Memories has been certified platinum. ''In Love and Death'' and new drummer (2004-2006) In 2004, lead vocalist Bert McCracken's ex-girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, died of a drug overdose."Scream it out loud" The Age. June 3, 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2009. Their second studio album was thus named In Love and Death, released as a reference to the tragedy McCracken dealt with during the recording. The song "Hard to Say" was a reference to McCracken's ex-girlfriend; although the song was written years earlier, its dedication was only then declared. In Love and Death received generally favorable reviewsThe Used: In Love and Death (2004): Reviews and spawned three singles: "Take It Away", "All That I've Got" (which earned them their first MuchMusic Video Award nomination), and "I Caught Fire", before being re-released in 2005. "Under Pressure" (a Queen and David Bowie cover song performed with My Chemical Romance) was featured as a bonus track on the re-release. The album has been certified gold. After finishing up an international tour for the album, The Used took about 8 months off before starting to work on their next album. On September 12, 2006, The Used announced and confirmed that Branden was no longer a member of the band.Branden Leaves the Used They said they felt they needed to move forward without him, and that there was a personality conflict between Branden and another band member; however, they did say that they love Branden and wish him the best in whatever he does in the future. In late 2006, it was announced drummer Dan Whitesides of New Transit Direction would replace Steineckert. Branden has since joined Rancid to replace former drummer Brett Reed. ''Berth'', Lies for the Liars and Shallow Believer (2007-2008) On February 6, 2007, The Used released a live double-album, Berth, which includes a DVD that features the entire concert of their performance at the Taste of Chaos 2005 tour in Vancouver and a disc that features it on audio. The DVD also includes a biography of the band and four music videos. The biography depicts the band in the position of where they were after the release of Maybe Memories and what lead them into creating In Love and Death. The sellings of Berth lead it to be certified as gold. The Used spent most of the early part of 2007 on the Taste of Chaos tour, before their third album, Lies for the Liars was released May 22, 2007. They headlined the Give It a Name festival and in June, The Used played the MuchMusic Video Awards for the first time ever, and also received their second nomination for Best International Group Video, for "The Bird and the Worm". The Used were scheduled to play Warped Tour in June and July, in support of their album, but were forced to cancel due to McCracken's required surgery, of which required the removal of a node from his vocal cords.ultimate-guitar.com After McCracken recovered, the band played the Reading and Leeds festivals in August, and went on to tour the United States in September. Lies for the Liars charted in the top 5 in more than seven countries, and there were 4 singles released: "The Bird and the Worm", "Liar Liar (Burn in Hell)", "Pretty Handsome Awkward", and "Paralyzed". Although Dan Whitesides was chosen as the new drummer, Dean Butterworth of Good Charlotte recorded drums for the album. With a six-month recording process, it was the longest session The Used had ever done for an album. Lies for the Liars generally received mixed reviews.The Used: Lies For The Liars (2007): Reviews Metacritic.. Originally, Lies for the Liars was expected to be a double-album 19 songs were recorded, but this plan was canceled after they decided to save the songs for a future release. Before the release of Lies for the Liars, The Used had planned on releasing an EP of the album's B-sides. On February 19, 2008 the EP was released, titled Shallow Believer; it was only released on digital music stores and it has charted #14 on iTunes' Top 100 albums. ''Artwork'' (2009-present) The Used worked on their fourth studio album throughout all of 2008. They took several breaks while working on the album to be the headlining band on the inaugural "Get a Life Tour" and to play shows Jakarta, Indonesia; Seoul, South Korea; and the 'Spare the Air Festival' in California. The album was produced by Panic at the Disco's producer Matt Squire, making this their first studio album not produced by John Feldmann. They decided to go with a different producer because they want the album to be different from everything else that they've done in the past.You Sing, I Write: Q&A with Jeph Howard of The Used It is also the first studio album by The Used to feature Dan Whitesides as the drummer since he joined the band in 2006. In Alternative Press, McCracken stated "In the past, we've always kind of brought pop sensibility into heavy rock, but this is going to be all that much more tantalizing and brutal. Our songs are 10 times messier and noisier than they've ever been.", "In the Studio" Alternative Press (October 2008) issue 243, p. 38 it also revealed information about the concept of the album: "This record is about coming to grips with how much you really hate yourself and knowing you can never hate yourself to the full extent, so you're free to hate yourself as much as you want to". McCracken went on to say "we not been this excited about an album since our self titled back in 2002." The album was named "Artwork" and was released along with a DVD for the pre-order and first run of the album in stores. after.The Used Interview The cover of "Burning down the House" by the Talking Heads was released on the Warner Bros. cover compilation album Covered, A Revolution in Sound, and will also be featured on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Album.Punknews.org | Warner acts cover other Warner acts with Against Me!, Black Keys, Flaming Lips, Taking Back Sunday They played at the Bamboozle Festival (New Jersey) May 2009. The single "Blood on My Hands" was released on iTunes June 31, and was accessible to be streamed for one day only on the band's website. On July 21, the pre-order was available. Artwork became available world wide on August 31st, 2009. The band played a major US tour in October and November 2009, and is now engaged in an arena tour supporting Three Days Grace in Canada. The band premiered the music video for the song "Empty with You" on December 9th, 2009 via TwitVid. They embarked on tour in support of "Artwork" in late 2009 with The Almost and Drive A, and on another supporting tour in early 2010 with Atreyu and Drive A. On March 2, 2010, The Used released 2 EPs exclusive to iTunes. TWO ITUNES EP’S FOR ONLY $1.99 On March 11 2010, The Used announced that they are heading out on a US tour along with Chiodos and New Medicine. This tour begins on April 13.The Used/Chiodos Tour New album (2010) On April 29, 2010, The Used stated on their website that they intend on releasing their fifth studio album before the end of the year. Regarding their canceled inclusions in Europe, Russia and the UK due to parting ways with their management team, The Used announced: "We will reschedule these shows as soon as possible. In the meantime, we have begun writing and recording for our upcoming album. We look forward to returning with a new album and tour dates soon."The Used official website Band members ;Current members *Quinn Allman — guitars, backing vocals (2001–present) *Jeph Howard — bass, backing vocals (2001–present) *Bert McCracken — lead vocals, piano, keyboards (2001–present) *Dan Whitesides — drums, percussion (2006–present) ;Former members *Branden Steineckert — drums, backing vocals (2001–2006) ;Session and touring members *Greg Bester — rhythm guitar (2002–2003) *Dean Butterworth — drums, percussion (2006–2007) Discography :Main article:The Used discography ;Studio albums *''The Used'' (2002) *''In Love and Death'' (2004) *''Lies for the Liars'' (2007) *''Artwork'' (2009) References External links *Official website Category:Bands LTJ have played with Category:Links to Wikipedia